Warnings: If you don't like yaoi... well who am I to say you can't read it. It's not like i'm gettin paid. Also, there may be some tragic stuff okay.

DisclaimerI wish I owned Naruto, but that right belongs to the Semes of Naruto.

"Talking"

"Thinking"

Ouykuu

Chapter 3: Flipping a New Leaf with Dark Shadows

Naruto looked behind him, and smiled at Itoshigo. He was peacefully asleep in the back seat. They had gone out some more, to erase what had happened earlier. Naruto merged into the next lane; they were still driving to their temporary house.

Once again there was that term house.

Iruka was very comforting, but his home was not Naruto's. It was filled with love, but it wasn't his. He didn't create it, had no rights to it, therefore he did not own it.

Naruto shook his head causing his long blond hair to stir behind him, its long gold threads captured in the moonlight.

The blond looked back quickly and heard Itoshigo rustle in his sleep, until he finally opened his eyes.

"Okaa-san," he yawned "where are we?"

"Well… were about 30 minutes away from the house. Why," he inquired, looking in his front view mirror.

"Well I was just kinda thirsty," he said, grogginess laced within his words. Naruto looked back at the road, and exited off into the main streets and pulled into a store.

"Okay Ito we gotta hurry, because I'm getting kinda tired and," he was going to finish if only his son had not ran past him into the store. Naruto rolled his eyes and walked calmly into the store.

As Naruto walked into the store, glances were thrown his way, but he ignored them and continued his way down the grocery isles.

Finally he had made it to the drinks section, finally just spacing out. He was only there for one objective: to get Itoshigo a drink and leave. He rummaged through the sodas, and picked up one drink.

"Pickled Energy drink? People think of weird things to sell," Naruto laughed to himself. He fell silent and scanned back the shelf of drinks. Naruto looked up and saw the drink that Itoshigo wanted.

He tried to reach up and cursed to himself.

He was too short!

He tried and tried with all his might to get the Mouth watering Mango juice, but curse his damn shortness.

"Here let me help you get that," some stranger said behind him. Naruto stiffened slightly when he felt the taller, and from what he could feel, seemingly muscular body reach up behind him and got the drink.

"Thank you," Naruto said, to embarrassed to look at the man who helped him.

"Excuse, but by any chance…" Naruto looked back at the hesitant stranger. There was something about him that Naruto remembered…

"By any chance what," he asked, trying to trigger his memory.

"Are you Naruto Uzumaki?"

Naruto nodded his head and looked at the stranger more closely, tan skin, a mop of short brunette hair, and 2 long garnet marks flowing down beady mischievous eyes, and soft lips with sharp canine teeth poking from the top.

They both looked at each other a little longer until realization hit Naruto like a ton of bricks.

"Kiba? Dog- boy that's you," Naruto asked reverting back to his old ways by calling Kiba his pet name.

"Hey," Kiba sneered playfully "I haven't seen you in years and this is how you greet an old friend?"

Naruto waved his counter attack off and greeted him, properly this time, with an embrace. Naruto smiled to himself, he hadn't seen one of his friends in so long. It felt really good to have someone important come back into his life again.

"So how is everything going," the blond asked his friend, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Kiba placed a thoughtful finger on his chin as he began to think slowly, causing Naruto to tap his foot impatiently on the floor. The dog lover looked at his friend and his face broke out into an all out grin.

"Well when the time I hadn't been seeing you I met this beautiful-"

"Man," Naruto broke through laughing as he saw his friend blush in anger and embarrassment.

"Oh shut it. As I was saying before I was so kindly interrupted," he said rolling both of his eyes at Naruto, "I met this beautiful woman. I mean she was everything I had dreamed of. She was kind, had a nice smile, beautiful, and she liked dogs!"

As Kiba went on about the list of all of her qualities, he giggled. His friend was seemingly head over heels for this woman. Back when they were in high school together, Kiba wasn't so good with women. They always commented about his dog, Akimaru, and were disgusted by him.

Naruto snapped out of his musings when he saw Kiba looking at him with confusion written all over his face.

"You're still the weird Naru-chan I met so long ago. Anyways we got married Naruto," Kiba trailed seemingly depressed.

Naruto's eyes drooped in apology; he had missed his best friends wedding.

"I sent you e-mails, letters, and left a voicemail every single day Naruto. Why didn't you reply?"

Naruto looked at his best friend at a loss for words. He opened his mouth but nothing would come out.

It wasn't his fault.

"Kiba, I didn't receive anything from you…" Naruto said in a low voice. The blond looked directly at Kiba, watching as the brunette was going to say something. That was until they were interrupted- but this time it wasn't a snide comment or a nick name.

"Okaa-san I was looking everywhere for you! In the cereal, dairy, mmm ice cream, fruit and vegetables, and- who is he mom?" Itoshigo said pointing a tiny finger at Kiba.

"Naruto is that Itoshigo?" Kiba asked looking at the red head in question.

Naruto laughed softly at both of them, and nodded his head. Naruto bent lower to Itoshigo and motioned for him to turn to Kiba.

"Ito, that's Kiba. He was there when you were younger. You might not remember him. You were just born when you had first seen him."

Itoshigo looked at his mother and Kiba blankly, again, again, and… again. Finally his lips twitched into a smile.

"Hi Ito," Kiba said smiling kindly at him, "would you like to go with your mom and I tomorrow. I could bring my dog Akimaru if you'd like."

Ito bounced up and down in joy looking at his mother's almost twin blue eyes for affirmation.

"Yes that would be nice Kiba. I would really like to catch up on thing," He thought aloud.

Naruto, Kiba, and Itoshigo soon purchased their goods, going back outside where their cars were parked, and bid their "good bye's" and "see you later's."

Naruto started his engine, and began to drive his way back home. It was somewhat a hectic day. If Itoshigo had not had been thirsty, he would not have seen his best friend of many years.

It was sickeningly funny.

To think a Mango flavored drink reunited him with his best friend.

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It was morning time, and all were asleep peacefully in the house. Iruka had left to work, and Naruto had finished an order this morning that was due tomorrow. But it seemed as a tiny disturbance, a little red head with blue eyes, began to creep through the house going into his mother's room.

Gingerly Ito lifted the covers off his mother's small body, and began to try and shake him awake.

"Okaa-san wake up," his voice struggled as he shook his mother harder. His cheeks puffed out angrily as he saw that his Okaa-san was still sleeping soundly, as he was struggling to wake him up.

"Okaa-san please wake up. It's almost time to go and see Kiba-san," he whined watching for any sign of his mother waking up.

Moments later the blond opened his murky blue eyes slowly, his vision beginning to hurt from the beaming morning Sun. He ran his long slender fingers through his long golden tresses, if a stranger were to walk in; they would have mistaken the sight as unearthly- heavenly even.

"Ito," his voice was raspy from sleep, "what time is it? And why did you pull the covers off of me? It's really cold Itoshigo."

Naruto looked back at his son, and wearily got up his hair tickled his shoulders as he began to walk. Naruto turned around and looked at his son tiredly.

"Ito go and get your clothes and yourself ready," he said simply, but sternly. Ito heard the door creak behind his mother, and laughed to himself. It seemed as if his mother was not a morning person.

XxXx

As Naruto sat in the bath tub, his mind went back to what Kiba had said. His best friend actually tried to call him over the years, and didn't abandon him?

He sat, and stayed still as he began to think, and reminisce about all the times he had with his friend. He laughed at quite a few actually. They studied together, laughed, and even fought with one another.

A long time ago, after he had seemingly lost all traces of Kiba he grew angry. During the time Gaara had implanted things into his mind.

Kiba didn't like him, let alone why would he want he want to be a friend of an abomination. He believed every single word he had spoken, all the lies. It seemed as Gaara did not want even his own friends, who were almost like a second family, to even contact him.

He massaged the shampoo onto his scalp softly feeling his fingers gently touch his head. He sighed heavily and sank further into the tub.

Back to the current situation, what was he going to tell Kiba?

"I should just tell him the truth. He is my best friend after all," Naruto absentmindedly began to wash out the suds from his long hair and finished cleansing himself with the cucumber honeydew melon body wash. It was an invigorating scent, one of his favorites.

He stood up and quickly wrapped his juban (Japanese robe) and tied a towel around his dripping hair.

"Okaa-san, can Ito help with your hair please," he begged to Naruto. Naruto nodded his head yes and smiled as he sat down at the guest room vanity.

Ito had waited until his mother had done drying his hair, took a brush and began to run it through his hair.

"Ito I'm sorry if I seemed cranky, but please don't do that again," he spoke softly. Ito nodded his head and concentrated on his work. The blond had closed his eyes and relaxed as he felt the brush take out what few kinks there were.

"Okay Okaa-san. All done," Itoshigo chirped merrily, leaving his mother to get dressed.

Naruto looked in the mirror and checked Ito's work. He had done a nice job of putting his hair into a pony tail. The blond got up and began to rummage through his clothes. He pulled out a white turtle neck thermo, some form fitting blue jeans, and his favorite sage and off white scarf.

To complete his look he had taken out his tan knee length button up trench coat and some matching snow boots.

Overall he was dressed for the weather, and quite nicely too. He grabbed his car keys and took his son.

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BARK BARK!

"Yeah, yeah I know Akimaru, I can see them clear as day," Kiba said rolling his eyes at his abnormally large white dog Akimaru.

"Okaa-san, Okaa-san look at Kiba-san's dog!" Ito ran toward Akimaru with no fear but excitement. Ito squealed loudly as he was glompped by the white dog as his face was licked mercilessly with the slobbery pink tongue.

They began to run around in along the grass, playing together.

"Man Naruto, Ito has grown so much from the last time I had seen him," he said watching as the animal and child play.

"Yes it has Kiba," he replied simply.

Kiba had turned and watched Naruto's face, but most importantly his eyes. They glowed, and glittered and they were really beautiful like that.

"Naruto I'm really glad that I got to see you again. It was really hard with that bastard Gaara always holding you down," at the mention of the red head's name Kiba grew enraged, but kept it to himself.

Kiba watched as Naruto's body posture changed entirely, Naruto had stiffened visibly, his shoulders were shaking slightly, but it grew slightly every passing moment. He felt Naruto flinch as he placed his hands gently on his shoulder.

"Gaara, Kiba, no longer needs me. He's found someone else," he said looking away, too ashamed to look at his long time friend.

"What happened after I left Naruto," Kiba questioned, some of his anger seeping out. The blond stared blankly at him, his eyes seemingly empty as he recalled the events and spoke with a dead voice.

"After you had left I had no protection I guess. He had cut everything, and everyone out of my life -he finally had complete control over me. Gaara, he had broken every promise we had made to one another. I was beaten, emotionally and mentally attacked, and he raped me countless of times."

Naruto paused for a moment, and gave a hollow sigh.

"But after a while, I was so tired from the beatings that I was numb to all the physical pain that he began to focus on my mind. At times he would be so rough, that I had to struggle to feed Itoshigo when he needed me. But I had let him do all of that to me," Naruto then looked away from Kiba and back to watch his child play with the dog.

The blond was caught off guard when he felt Kiba pull him closer to his body, and wrap his arms around his limp arms.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I didn't mean to bring up such a bad thing," Kiba said, and Naruto gently drew back with an accepting smile.

"It's okay Kiba, no need for apologies," he tried to say reassuringly, but his eyes had betrayed him. Kiba looked at his friend trying to further piece what had been going on. Sooner or later he would find out, he was guessing Naruto was fragile at a moment like this.

Fragile things break easily when handled rough.

Kiba was going to say more until his phone began to ring loudly playing the tune "Mr. Grinch."

"Hello," He said into the receiver.

"Kiba I need you to call Yubisha-san later on about the file," commanded a deep voice over the phone. Naruto looked back at his best friend with a perfectly shaped eye brow raised in question.

The conversation continued on going, until Kiba had reassured the man that everything was fit for the event.

Kiba shut his cell phone with a loud 'click' and rubbed his temples.

"So what was that all about? " Naruto asked, his curious nature getting to him.

Kiba shook his head in annoyance at the mention of 'him' and answered Naruto's question, "My business partner. I swear he has a stick shoved up his ass."

A giggled, came from Naruto as he thought about how much this person could be. It soon turned out into an all out laugh and soon enough they found each other laughing just as the old days.

Soon the laughing had died down and they sat in a comfortable silence.

Pretty soon they placid atmosphere was shattered by Naruto's cell phone ringing.

"Hello," he said this time.

"Hey Naruto," a voice replied, "your client just call, and asked if you had gotten their order done?"

Naruto thought momentarily before replying, "Yes I did Iruka. I finished about last night… I think."

The blond heard Iruka sigh over the other line, what had he forgotten?

"Naruto you have a very forgetful mind. Don't you remember the note I left you in the afternoon? Naruto please tell me you did not forget about the note that I left for you," Iruka wondered prepared to scold Naruto any moment sooner.

Naruto had taken a second to think, and laughed nervously into the receiver and gave a shaky "no."

"Well Naruto, you have one more thing that you need to add to their order. Don't you remember you have to add the dessert," he mentioned trying to trigger Naruto's memory.

Naruto quickly nodded and ended the conversation between them. He turned to Kiba and tried to give him an apologetic face, but he was stopped before he could even try.

"Don't worry Naruto, go and handle your business. Besides its getting dark, and Ito feel asleep on me."

The blue eyed man looked at his arms, and surely enough there was Itoshigo asleep. He looked like he had gone through a lot with Akimaru, and had burnt out all the energy he had.

"Okay, take him to Iruka's, and Kiba if anything happen-" he tried to finish but was rudely cut off.

"Yes Naruto, I'll suffer 1,000 years of death," he chimed sarcastically. He looked at Naruto, seeing his friend have a serious expression plastered on his face.

"I will make sure of that Kiba, if it ever does come true," he spoke critically, emphasizing the mental image of damage that would run through Kiba's mind. Naruto gave him a smile before leaving.

All Kiba could think, this was a wonderful way to catch up.

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Seclusion, it was truly beautiful.

Itachi, a man of power, sophistication, and brilliance… was just standing in the rain feeling nothing as people passed him by without even sparring even one glance. As he stood next to the outdoor food stand, he contemplated what the meaning to his life was.

He had climbed to the top of any corporation, obliterating all that stood in his way, to only reach the top and find nothing was there to hold onto.

He looked at the slightly crowded area looking, and staring at the scenes before him.

Family, couples, and children surrounded the area.

It seemed normal.

In Itachi's life everything was just too normal.

He leaned into the wall further, his cold face was more chilling than the beating rain against his soaked clothes that clung tightly to his pale skin. The cold was soothing; it was as if the rain was washing away all his sins.

Sins that had sunken in too deep.

"These people don't even see who I am now, but once the sun rises and the sky is clear they shall admire me once more," he thought bitterly. Itachi zoned out, until he felt the rain suddenly stop against his skin. He closed his eyes as his nose was hit with the scent of something that he couldn't place. It was unique in Japan.

"Umm… aren't you cold," someone asked hesitantly, their voice was soft and gentle. Itachi looked and was met with a stunning pair of blue eyes. They caught his crimson eyes, seemingly as blue clashed with red.

Itachi broke away and turned his head away from the pair of orbs and looked at the- it was the woman ( or so he thinks!) that he had seen with the child Ito as he recalled.

"Hello," the blond asked again to the raventte who was much taller than he.

Naruto, despite the cold, found himself blushing as he unnamed man stared at him with blank hollow eyes. It reminded him of someone…

Naruto smiled slightly as he looked at the man.

Itachi stood up and began to walk away from the blond pushing through the crowd, his wet clothes not tempering with his long strides.

"Hey, hey you wait! You're going to get sick," Naruto called out to the man as he held his bag of groceries against him firmly running as fast as his legs would carry him.

Itachi glanced behind him as he walked calmly, seeing the blond struggle to get to him. H must have known who he actually was, and must have been trying to do something to ruin him.

Naruto growled in frustration, all he was trying to do was help the man from dieing from phenomena! It must have been the mother instinct inside of him because this was beginning to become pointless.

But he reminded him so much of…

"Hey please stop," he said loudly, he had almost caught up to the emotionless man.

Itachi kept his eyes ahead not even sparing the blond with one glance; he just kept walking forward with nothing particular in front of him.

Naruto had finally almost caught up to him; he was balancing the groceries with his umbrella, as he tried to reach out for the pale man's hand.

It was really cold.

Itachi slowed down to occasional foot steps.

It was suddenly warm, and now the effects his soaking clothes were taking effect.

He looked at the source and found a small delicate tan hand retraining his arms. He looked at the woman (once again so he thinks!) watching as the blond tried to catch his breath- even though he was not miserably tired.

"Your mean," he pouted and which Itachi thought for a split second 'cute.'

Itachi looked back and replied "You have no business following me."

Naruto looked at the ravenette, but quickly snapped out of his train of thoughts when he felt his bag almost slip- thank goodness for his fast reflexes.

"I'm sorry, but I didn't mean to bother you I-" he cut himself off shaking his had furiously, "Listen I'm sorry. All I wanted to do was help you."

Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly at the blond, "I don't want your pity."

He began to walk off but the blond grabbed his arms, and Itachi saw that those blue orbs had changed… they were sparkling with fire.

He watched as the blond laughed, it was soft and smooth like rich silk.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, goodness you act as though giving you an umbrella is a charity case. By the way Naruto Uzumaki," he said offering another smile.

"Itachi Uchiha," he replied waiting for the same reaction he always seemed to get once his name was mentioned.

Naruto stared blankly at him, before saying "Well Itachi you are soaking wet in a freezing cold. You're a strange person."

Itachi looked at the blond "You are the strange one."

"Well not all men are like you. Here," he said giving the umbrella to Itachi. He collected his groceries and began making his was back to his car.

The last thought on Itachi's mind was ",This day turned to be very unusual."

He opened the umbrella and walked along the place.

He couldn't feel the rain anymore.

Well you guys I decided to leave this chapter un-beta'd.

Ghaa my birthday is on the same day as Gaara's!!!!!!

Jan. 19!!!

Well everyone my new story is out and I hope you plaese read it and review it. It's got alot of cool stuff.

And i'm sorry about the long wait,my computer was acting dumb, and the internet was off.

Well leave me some love. It would be an excellent late birthday present.

:3

Until next time.